Wrote about the border search exception: a massive loophole in the Fourth Amendment that allows border officials to search through your phone without a warrant, the exception provides an easy pretext for the Trump administration to target its political enemies. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Trump Should Need a Warrant to See Your Phone

Federal officers can too easily comb through the most intimate details of your life.

theatlantic.com

2018 debate stage, Michigan Democratic governor primary. Quite a journey these three have been on. (Photo credit: AP)

Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, defeating U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens in a victory for the party's progressive wing in a battleground state. bit.ly/4wHDgbm

I've just taken a very quick look on my phone but at first glance the drop in “perceived decline“ in free expression is disturbingly, if predictably, polarized on party lines: Rs show only slight decline compared to 10 years ago while Ds dropped by more than 30 percentage points

John Sands@iohn.bsky.social · 5h ago

A new survey from @knightfoundation.org and @ssrsresearch.bsky.social reveals a disquieting decline in how free Americans feel to use the freedoms protected by the #FirstAmendment without government interference or punishment. 🧵

They could always sign up to give comment at a public meeting.

The Wall Street Journal@wsj.com · 16h ago

New York City’s business elites are long accustomed to direct access to City Hall, where even Democratic mayors felt the need to court the city’s wealthiest and most influential corporate leaders. That access is getting shredded by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

I was moved to read Samantha Morton talk about getting fired from the Spike Jonze movie Her in this piece. She was on the set when I was there reporting a story--her work as the voice was done live, and her commitment to what she was doing on the film was extraordinary. deadline.com/2026/08/sama...

Samantha Morton On Why She "Hasn't Worked For A Year" Since 'The Odyssey' & Why She Was "Sad" & "Hurt" After Getting "Fired" From 'Her'

Samantha Morton is opening up about not working after filming Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey.

deadline.com

Slightly shocked that Jeff Sessions might end up being Trump’s least bad Senate-confirmed AG.

Another banger from @aclu.org @aaup.org www.aclutx.org/press-releas...

ACLU of Texas, Professors Sue Texas A&M System Over Censorship Policy, Detail Violations of Academic Freedom - ACLU of Texas

Faculty have been instructed to remove educational materials — like the film “Moonlight” and writings by Plato — from syllabi following policy banning race, gender, and sexual orientation related topi...

aclutx.org

Just so everyone knows, this is a tried-and-true mainstream media tactic. For progressives/leftist candidates, every election is a “crucial test” and any loss would serve as proof to the media that the latest left-side moment is at its end. Any win, though, just means it’s time to find a new test.

Politico@politico.com · 2d ago

Michigan will provide another crucial test of whether progressives can not only keep up their winning streak in safe-blue seats but also break through in battlegrounds crucial for control of Congress. The stakes for the Democratic Party are huge.

This September will mark 25 years since 9/11 and the inauguration of the “war on terror.” On Sept 9 & 10, join @knightcolumbia.org and the Li Center at @columbiajournalism.bsky.social for a major symposium about the war on terror’s legacy for democratic freedom. 1/ knightcolumbia.org/events/the-f...

The Forever War and the First Amendment

knightcolumbia.org

But they will be

Steffen Rayburn-Maarup@rayburnmaarup.bsky.social · 3d ago

I don't think people are ready for this kind of joke yet.

Begging NYRB or Verso to bring Ellen Schrecker’s No Ivory Tower back into print. www.ellenschrecker.com/noivorytower

No Ivory Tower: McCarthyism and the Universities | Ellen Schrecker

ellenschrecker.com

Jacob T. Levy@jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 2d ago

Four university presidents, "Andrew Martin at Washington University in St. Louis, Michael Crow at Arizona State University, Douglas Girod at the University of Kansas, & Ronald Daniels at the Johns Hopkins University" collaborated in the latest attack on higher ed. www.chronicle.com/liveblog/her...

Like a few other actors (Farrell most obviously), Banderas has the soul and insight of a true artist which is a little hard to see because he’s so conventionally attractive. This is the first thing that made me potentially interested in seeing “Tony”, which has made me preemptively nervous.

Helen Rosner@hels.bsky.social · 3d ago

I had a long, honestly pretty spectacular conversation with Antonio Banderas (!!!!) and i think you will really enjoy reading it www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

I knew Lex Korberg in college and had followed their stellar legal career. What a disappointment to learn the real story of their departure from PW, and how much that once-respected firm has beclowned itself.

Caleb Crain@calebcrain.bsky.social · 3d ago

“Mr. Barshay had told other firm leaders that after Mx. Korberg — who uses they/them pronouns — transitioned, he did not want them dealing with his clients. He said a transgender lawyer could hurt business by making clients uncomfortable.”

The great @irathethird.bsky.social on the limits of critique in our addled moment: “In 1950, Alan Turing posed the question, ‘Can machines think?’ In 2026, many of us scroll the tiny machines in our hands and pose the daily question, ‘Can HUMANS think?’” iramadison.substack.com/p/why-do-we-...

Why do we watch movies?

On Obsession, The Odyssey, and the point of art

iramadison.substack.com

a clinical critique would destroy all the raw material the reporters collected via the access Doyle provided. it's counterintuitive to dedicate any investigative resources to reporting pre-selected for a let-the-readers-decide story, which is the paper's default posture for most gender subjects.

Anna Merlan @annamerlan.bsky.social · 4d ago

How does one write this story without asking a licensed marriage and family therapist how this advice could impact women in abuse marriages? Or indeed, asking anyone with any actual credentials what they make of the Laura Doyle approach and its legacy? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/22/u...

People potentially subject to the nyc pied-à-terre tax are being treated with 1% of the administrative hostility of SNAP and Medicaid applicants, and they’re throwing 100x the fit

Once again, this case will need to go to SCOTUS to reverse the Fifth Circuit when it has once again ignored the First Amendment.

Raffi Melkonian@rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 6d ago

A strong dissent from denial of rehearing by Judge Willett in McKesson - the case where the Fifth Circuit upheld liability for a Black Lives Matter leader when there is no evidence he had anything at all to do with a police officer's injury. 1/ www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...

I see things continue to be absolutely normal in the MI Senate race. Pure Michigan (I'm still trained to say "Great Lakes, Great Times" — except that's hardly apt).

No professional accomplishment has ever made me happier than this. theonion.com/translator-o...

Translator Of Original ‘Minions’ Epic Poem Slams ‘Sexless, Bloodless’ Film Adaptation

PHILADELPHIA—In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” ...

theonion.com

I wrote about the hotass mess that hundreds of recent law grads in Washington are going through for no good reason! ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...

Wi-Fi Fiasco Transforms Washington Bar Exam Into an Even Bigger Waste of Time Than Usual

Yet another reason to move beyond the legal profession’s annual hazing ritual.

ballsandstrikes.org

I could barely afford vibranium as it was

Asperas Bompar@asperasbompar.bsky.social · 6d ago

Wakanda tariffs going to get doubled now

COME WORK at the ACLU! @aclu-norcal.bsky.social is hiring attorneys to work on tech and civil rights (my team) and the criminal legal/immigration system. These folks will work at the cutting edge of legal and policy efforts in California and beyond. Apply here: www.aclunorcal.org/jobs/staff-a...

Staff Attorney / Senior Staff Attorney - ACLU of Northern California

Develop and carry out litigation and policy advocacy to advance to protect and defend civil rights and civil liberties for all Californians.

aclunorcal.org

My friends at @umichlaw.bsky.social are hiring in the first year Legal Practice program, potentially for multiple slots! careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...

If you're a law student and you miss the first Civil Procedure lecture, this is what happens to you years later

Kash Patel’s Ambitious Defamation Lawsuit Foiled By Basic Civil Procedure Doctrine

The litigious FBI director’s case against a blogger who called him a “blatantly incompetent chud” is no match for International Shoe.

ballsandstrikes.org

If this goes on too much longer Emily Wilson is going to make the opening monologue of next year’s Oscars.

Mark Harris@markharris.bsky.social · 7d ago

Honestly laughing out loud that 88-year-old shit-stirring Olympian Joyce Carol Oates looked up in the sky, saw the Batsignal, and headed to her laptop. www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

I’ve been waiting for the print edition to read The Review (I am an old), but my principle here is that if a reviewer isn’t free to give her honest opinion of a work of art, what freedom worth having still exists in the world? Gratitude and ingratitude are just terms for social control here.

Teaching PR radicalized me into an abolish the bar person. This latest fiasco proves that states can’t even be trusted to administer a pointless exam. Cancel it & redirect the funds towards ethics compliance. Hard to pull off given entrenched interests & the cartel nature of the bar. But we can try!

Paul Gowder@gowder.io · last wk.

So this Washington bar exam catastrophe---what the fuck? I have a lot of sympathy with the abolish-the-bar campaign (albeit with some hesitations due to the plague of incompetent lawyers out there), but even if we don't abolish it at a minimum we have to HAVE STANDARDS FOR THE TECHNOLOGY

cashier today told me he knew me from twitter and said him and his partner still use “the butter’s penthouse” 😭